Mugabe wants to retire

Ailing Zanu-PF leader and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe reportedly  confided in founding party member and minister Enos Nkala that he wanted to resign but was scared the country would be plunged into a civil war.

The two met at the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport in Bulawayo on Friday and Nkala afterwards said Mugabe said he was tired and wanted to retire but could not as he feared his faction riddled Zanu-PF would die.

"He cannot leave the party in such a state. He is managing Zanu-PF and preventing it from disintegrating," said Nkala.

"My own reading is that if he had his own way, he could have quit and taken a rest but circumstances around him and implications of what might happen are holding him. He is not his own man."

Nkala said Mugabe had confided to him that he had not found a suitable successor who stands in his place and the party remains united.

"He said factionalism was eating away the party, and the party was no longer united. If not managed properly, the succession issue will cause a civil war," said Nkala.

"It is easy to say Mugabe should go. The people in the security sector are the ones who went to the war and need to be managed properly," added Nkala.

Mugabe's spokesperson was not immediately available to comment on Nkala's statements.